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Comment: Re:What's wrong with Tokens? (Score 2) 196

by djlemma (#45532873) Attached to: Chicago Transit System Fooled By Federal ID Cards
Well, everybody else is saying tracking.. but there are legitimate reasons to use fare cards. One is that you gain the ability to have unlimited ride passes- pay a flat fee and ride the train for free all month. Hard to do that with tokens. Also, many cities charge variable amounts depending on how far you go on the train. You swipe your card to go in, and swipe again when you leave, and it charges based on distance. That way, short trips can be cheaper. It's also possible to have different prices for different services- like NYC charging a higher fare for an express bus or for the AirTrain to JFK.

Comment: Re:Many of those bulbs due for replacement anyway (Score 3, Informative) 372

by djlemma (#45237733) Attached to: NYC's 250,000 Street Lights To Be Replaced With LEDs By 2017
They are replacing High Pressure Sodium lamps, which are not incandescent. The funny thing is, by the standard measure of efficiency used in the industry, the new street lamps probably will be LESS efficient than the old ones. HPS lamps can get above 100 lumens per watt pretty easily, and low pressure sodiums can even get up to 200 lumens per watt. They've been able to get efficiency like that in labs for LED's, but for production fixtures it's not very common.

Of course, LED's often win out in real-world comparisons, because all the lumens are more efficiently directed where they need to go. Still, to get that much brightness, it's going to cost quite a lot of money.

Comment: Geeky in multiple ways (Score 1) 129

by djlemma (#45070023) Attached to: Milestone: The Millionth UK-Made Raspberry Pi
I am using my Pi to provide video for a costume I'm making. It's for a character who has a television for a head, and being the electronics nerd that I am, I decided to make my costume version with a functioning TV. I got a cheap old LCD TV from eBay, and put some content on a loop on the Pi, and got some batteries to power it all. Very simple, and the connection is straightforward since the Pi has an RCA composite video out.

Of course, it's going to be a crappy costume unless I can figure out a way to make a nice shell to cover it all. So far my attempts at using fiberglass have been....mixed. :/ But for reference, the character is Prince Robot IV.

Comment: Re:Actually, I like the dead trees (Score 1) 192

by djlemma (#44657755) Attached to: Students At Lynn University Get iPad Minis Instead of Textbooks
In one of the articles, they mention that the materials on the iPad are the instructor-written texts. They also mentioned that 50% of the texts used in classes were instructor-written. So, it sounds to me like you pay 50% of the cost of buying textbooks to get an iPad, which has 50% of your textbooks on it. You're still going to need to spend all the money on the other textbooks that you normally would have, so it's sort of a wash, although you do end up with a gadget to hold onto in the end.

If it actually ends up teaching the material better, then great. I just worry it's a gimmick, and I doubt I would do as well reading on an iPad as sitting with my classmates in the library poring over the textbooks.

Comment: Cost of the texts themselves (Score 1) 192

by djlemma (#44657703) Attached to: Students At Lynn University Get iPad Minis Instead of Textbooks
The cost of a textbook has little to do with the cost of printing, which is the only cost mitigated by electronic distribution. Are they expecting the publishers of the textbooks to offer up their works for free? I mean, it might cut down on professors writing their own textbooks and releasing new revisions each year so that students always had to buy new books instead of used.. but.. I'm having trouble believing that the costs involved will be limited to the $475 of the iPad.

Comment: KillaCycle (Score 2) 99

by djlemma (#44116757) Attached to: New World Record For Electric Car Speed: 204.2 MPH
I immediately thought about the drag racing electric motorcycle I had read about years back, the KillaCycle. Well, apparently those guys designed the battery packs for the Drayson in TFA, which is pretty neat. It's also the bike that the inventor crashed while trying to do a burnout for some reporters... but whatever, still cool.

Comment: Re:What's the appeal? (Bingo!) (Score 1) 243

by djlemma (#44072087) Attached to: NYC Tech Sector Growing Faster Than City Can Keep Up

oh please. i came to a rural area from NYC. You know what NYC is filled with ? assholes. lots and lots of assholes, just like you. the subway runs 24 hours - and you can get mugged/robbed/raped for 12 of those hours. it stinks, its full of filthy poor assholes and like the rest of NYC theyre also RUDE assholes. it costs too much to live in a shithole shoebox, its full of rats, cockroaches and rotting food on the streets and anyone who lives in a rural area and wants to get to NYC has never been there in their life. the ONLY reason to locate in NYC is if your customer base is the asshole set who live in NYC and have offices in NYC. in which case you should open a sales office there and main office elsewhere.

Interesting that you use an aggressive, profanity laden, AC post to call me an asshole. :) There are so many wonderful people in this city it makes my head spin, but if your experience was so focused on the negative aspects then I feel bad for you. There are certainly a lot of unpleasant things here in NYC, but there's a lot of EVERYTHING in NYC.
It's not the place for everybody, but it is a great place for me.

Comment: Re:Transportation is not a limiting factor here! (Score 1) 243

by djlemma (#44069671) Attached to: NYC Tech Sector Growing Faster Than City Can Keep Up

Or you could have to drive, only to find that some idiot cut off some other idiot and caused a massive accident that has the expressway backed up for miles, and you have to wait around for hours until they clear the accident.

Dumbest post here.

Apparently you haven't been to LA...

Comment: Re:What's the appeal? (Score 1) 243

by djlemma (#44069645) Attached to: NYC Tech Sector Growing Faster Than City Can Keep Up
I'd say the two biggest things are employees and clients. In NYC, you'll have plenty of options for both. Real estate prices may be high, but I doubt that really factors in very much to most corporate budgets. The thing that's more of a concern would probably be expected salaries- employees cost more than office rentals, unless you only have one or two of them... and people expect to be paid a little more in NYC. But if I were starting a business, I'd want to consider a lot of factors, including how I was going to find people to buy my stuff... And lots of people in NYC have money and like to buy stuff. :)

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." -- Albert Einstein

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